Optus outage halts emergency contact centre

An Optus network outage in Queensland this week knocked out the emergency 000 number, as well as various other contact centres throughout the state.

Fixed line, mobile and internet connections were taken down across Queensland and parts of northern New South Wales after an Optus fibre optic cable was severed by workers laying pipe for Queensland’s new water grid. Emergency calls to police, ambulance and fire services from Optus mobiles did not work during the outage and backup measures to ensure 000 calls would be connected in the event of network failure did not kick in, the company admitted today.

The TransLink Transit Authority’s 24-hour contact centre was also affected by the outage and was unable to receive calls for a few hours, directing customers to try logging on to their website for information instead. Optus spokesman Joshua Drayton intimated to reporters that the company was prepared to field calls for compensation for loss of vital phone, internet and payment processing systems.